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Thread: Traded 3 turned Chinese elm mallets for Pecan log 20" dia by 16'

  1. #1

    Traded 3 turned Chinese elm mallets for Pecan log 20" dia by 16'

    My neighbor's Pecan tree split at an upper crotch so she had it taken down today and I was prepared with my Chinese elm mallets to swap for the Pecan log 20" dia by 16'.

    Looking forward to butterflying the crotches for 12-15" dia bowl blanks and slabbing the straight main trunk for live edge table tops and truing up a cookie from the stump for a table top. I got the Pecan hauled into my backyard today what a job I think that was easily 2,000#.

    Neptune my white lab should get the all clear soon his TPLO bone is completely healed so we can catch the tail end of Chinook river salmon season and get this have Pecan smoked salmon for Christmas dinner appetizers
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  2. #2
    I got the 2 crotch Pecan logs broken down into 14 bowl blanks, I got the cookie trued up, Cassiopeia kept pulling my chocks I was using to keep the logs to be slabbed from rolling so I quit early today. I have been lumberjacking hard for 3 days and am kind of sore so nice to take a break. I have silica gel desiccant arriving from Amazon tomorrow to put in vacuum bags with my cookies (after cleaning off the Anchor Seal), recharge silica gel bags in microwave, repeat. From what I read on WoodWeb from the PhD who sounds like he knows I need to get this Pecan down to 20% moisture content quickly to avoid ugly graying of the sap wood. I will bring rough turned bowls into the house in cardboard boxes to expedite drying, I may have to put a fan into the slab stack in the shed. We are getting some much needed rain in California tomorrow and it is forecast to be cool for the next week with not much wind. Good for catching river salmon not so good for keeping gray out of the Pecan sap wood.
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  3. #3
    Cut Pecan live edge table top slabs today, milling Pecan smells so good. https://youtu.be/RsOSbHr2Gk0

  4. #4
    210,000 BTU cooker arrived today, I plan to boil 12 pecan bowls Sunday after the wind and storm passes. I switched plans to boiling bowls after reading those great links JKJ provided in the other thread.
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  5. #5
    I boiled 8 pecan bowls today I am happy with my setup and process. I wrapped them in shipping paper and put them in a cardboard box in the house to dry. Here is the video https://youtu.be/q84lLXAFtIs and I scooped out my double crotch bowl. Leland

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  6. #6
    14" pecan crotch bowls rough turned ready for 1-1/2 hour boil in the morning and Cassiopeia in the Pecan shavings
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  7. #7
    I am not familiar with boiling wood to change color, nor do I see how that does anything except leach color from the wood overall? When walnut is commercially kiln dried and steamed the color leaches from the heartwood and steams into the sap wood increasing the value given the sapwoods no longer white. Pecans in hickory family and also has white sapwood.
    Last edited by Michael A. Tyree; 12-13-2019 at 10:19 AM.

  8. #8
    As I understand it, Michael, the boiling is to help relieve stresses in the green wood rough bowl to help prevent crack formation during drying, and it may also help accelerate the drying process. I don't think it is done for the purpose of changing the color.

  9. #9
    Hi Michael, I am boiling it to kill the fungus so it doesn't turn the sapwood gray and it seems to be working some of my first pieces are down to 20% on the moisture meter now and no sign of gray. The good articles JKJ referenced for us in the boiling heat source thread indicate that the color change from boiling only goes 1/16" into the wood so I will be turning that off when I finish turn. I am also boiling the pecan to keep it from cracking badly, the articles JKJ referenced indicate pecan and sycamore respond well to boiling and the author has hundreds of bowls experience. Happy turning. Leland

  10. #10
    Fighting a minor mold outbreak on the 10 boiled pecan bowls I brought into the house with distilled white vinegar in a spray bottle. No cracking but I did finally unwrap the bowls tonight since I am now seeing ~20% moisture content on my inductive moisture meter. I stacked and restacked the pecan slabs and cookies in the shed. My weather station reads 53% humidity in the house and 95% outside with fog and rain lately the pecan slabs can't loose to much moisture in the shed but they are stickered and not getting rained on. If I have to tear the stack apart and spray with distilled white vinegar in a couple weeks to fight mold in the shed I am up for that.
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  11. #11
    High frequency electromagnetic moisture meter indicates boiled pecan bowls dry in 3 weeks. I have minor cracking on 3 of 10 but it should turn out. At the first sign of mold I unwrapped paper and opened the card board boxes but as it turned out the distilled white vinegar spray on the surface was very effective killing the mold. Now that I know that I will keep the paper wrapping longer and just inspect and vinegar spray to kill mold as needed. I am very happy I kept the mold and gray out of the color they should be creamy color after I turn 1/16" off where the boiling water stained the surface. I will boil green wood again when species and/or tangential/radial shrinkage predict a high rate of drying defects.

    Pecan live edge table slabs in shed show no sign of mold or powder post beatles and I will fog again with Raid this week to keep the bugs away. The slabs are on a much slower drying trajectory may be dry in summer 2023 or 2024. Happy I have a gauge to watch humidity in the stack in the shed now it fluctuates dramatically by time of day and time of year.

    Thank you again Moderator JKJ for turning me onto Steven Russell's boiling protocol and tips and tricks technical papers they were invaluable.

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  12. #12
    Finished turned boiled pecan bowls, sanded, bees was and mineral oil. I am very happy with the color and I know they would be a nasty gray color if I had let the mold take its course. I plan to ship these bowls to the Golden State Salmon Association Feb 1 California wild King salmon dinner at Viansa Winery in Sonoma. I expect they will bring $300 each at auction to support salmon restoration in our Central Valley rivers. I do not sell my bowls just make them for people and causes I love and I get much satisfaction from that.
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  13. #13
    Finish turned 1 of the larger boiled pecan crotch bowls I had brought inside the house to dry and I love the figure, color and very minimal drying defects. I had put not boiled pecan bowl blank end cuts in a box in the smoke shed and a box of boiled pecan burls. I think boiling triggers the spores reproductive cycle much like a fire causes some seeds to germinate because I had an explosive almost overnight mold outbreak. It is now under control with distilled white vinegar and sunshine. I am very glad I researched what I was up against drying this pecan and got that WoodWeb PhD advice to get it below 20% moisture content QUICKLY to keep the color and avoid ugly graying mold. Steven Russell's boiling green wood protocol moderator JKJ turned me onto has been invaluable, Steven brings his boiled pieces inside his heated, air conditioned, shop to dry too. Steven writes boiled wood dries 50% faster than just paper bagged green wood and I can vouch for that too.
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  14. #14
    I rough turned the boiled pecan burl pieces and the gray mold has penetrated 1-1/2 inch deep into the wood. 50 degrees and 98% humidity outside is just to conducive to mold growth and I don't want to bring them into my house where the temp is higher and humidity is lower because I don't want to be breathing in those mold spores so I'll let the burls go gray. Burls grow on the tree next to bark which is also next to the cambium layer and sapwood full of sugars above the fiber saturation point. The slabs which were not boiled are still drying in the shed I see cracks on the perimeter of some of the pecan cookies so I know they are drying and no signs of mold.
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  15. #15
    Wind has been out of the north, humidity has dropped and pecan is drying in the shed. The pecan cookies illustrate tangential/radial shrinkage for this juvenile wood we'll see how the cookie crumbles and what would be required to get a cookie table top out of them, I am not to worried. I finish turned American Elm for my neighbor and her BFF and a Pecan for my sister for Valentine's Day. I broke a cylinder head bolt in my 20 year old homemade boat Yami outboard so I turned it into the sheriff through their vessel turn in program, gave the deputy some Chinese elm mallets and she gave me a junior deputy marine patrol star I ordered plans from Glen-L for their Console Skiff it will be nice to have a V hull and put some horse power on this boat.
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